Weaning off the Flat Crack

Hello everyone! This past week I have played so much almost no magic at all (2 drafts, 2 matches of legacy). There are a ton of reasons for this, but one of the big ones includes friends coming back from college, and I want to spend the little time I have with them instead of magic for a change. However, that's not the sole reason. Similar to Brian Grewe, I have become cold to come aspects of the game. I feel like it really stemmed from my new overwhelming desire to win as opposed to have fun. It doesn't help that Caw-Blade feels oppressively powerful to me. Decks like that one simply aren't very fun to play against because by turn 4 you may be completely locked out of the game. It just takes the other player at least another 5 turns to actually seal the deal.

So because of my lack of enthusiasm for current standard, plus my lack of a deck, I intentionally skipped FNM in lieu of buying deafening pads and a new hi-hat (which sounds more beautiful then a laughing baby) for my drums. Then I set up some pseudo-surround sound for my iPod and rocked out for 2 hours. It's hard to play the drums without disturbing everyone, especially at 8 at night, so to say I enjoyed a long-lost pleasure is an understatement.

Saturday was spent sleeping in, hanging with friends, and band practice at night. Then I got together with other people for a hilarious dinner!

We had a 90 minute wait to get into the Cheesecake Factory, but the 5 of us decided to go for it anyways. So we perused the mall for about 80 minutes before heading back to the restraunt and chilling on the bench outside the restraunt. 5 people on a 2 person bench leads to a crazy stack of people all over eachother. And here is when one of my co-workers walks by.... My version of the story and his version of the story (same exact thing but he tries to make it sound like I'm gay, stoned, or both) exploded around the warehouse at work today to everyone's amusement. After eating some fantastic cheesecake, I hung out with CJ playing Dominion for several hours.

I slept in to about 10, then headed into Boston for PAX East. PAX, to say the least, was INSANE! I was only able to stay for 5 hours because of my gig that night, but I can't wait to go back next year! I was looking forward to doing Magic trading and competing, but the Magic scene was actually insanely tame. There was a mini-master event.... and that was about it. I played maybe 2 games of standard, put down 2 trades (my Jace Beleran for his Mox Opal heads-up) and only indulged in magic by buying some pimp cards. What can be more exciting than buying 20 basic lands?

This is one of the 20 lands that were printed in Japan back during Ravnica block. There were 20 lands because there were 2 lands for each of the 10 guilds (which conveniently matches how WotC prints 4 arts for each basic each block). I got 1 land of each type:

These lands are cooler than Zendikar full art lands to me! As I type that, I'm trying to figure out what are the coolest lands to me.... The coolest lands that I want to acquire over time are the foil full art lands, and more of these Guild lands.

But to more engaging things than basic lands! There wasn't much Magic happening, so I was forced to explore the world of gaming, and meet new people. I played a variety of table-top games, although I never won =(. After hours of various table-top gaming, I grabbed lunch right next to a rockband stage. You could wait in line with your band and play a song on the big stage. I didn't have time to wait in line at this point, but I did have time to finish lunch and start headbanging to the band. I was the first of a raging crowd of 2 to go up and headbang, so at least I wasn't jumping around alone ^__^

All in all the weekend was awesome, and I barely tapped any cards! It's a suprisingly great way to get into Magic: stop playing for a while. Life is good, and hopefully you don't have to wait a week to hear from me again.

But until next time, stay classy!